Photography Cert. 2014 -

Dona! you're my hero... this post is dedicated to my awesome classmate. During classes i often take notes, either by hand or i would type them up.  When it comes time to post up notes on my blog i often refer to my handwritten notes or a few word documents on screen at the same time.  Yes, Yes i know time consuming! Anyways lil miss Dona rocks up to my workstation during our break, sees the mess that is my collage of notes and suggests that i just post my notes on blogger and save the docs under each theme.  Huh i thought! what a brill idea, i never even considered that... so to miss Dona i say thank you for the great suggestion! its was such an A- HA moment that i couldn't help but blog about it. BTW, Dona - short for Donatella is 18 years old and has an amazing eye for photography.  She is my model for my light exercises. Below are the blog addresses for the other wonderful students in our class, who i am also learning a lot from.  Some of us are total n...

David LaChapelle An American fine arts photographer, film and video director.  He is noted as having an "exceptional talent in combining a unique hyper-realistic aesthetic with profound social messages". ( Davidlachapelle ) During the 80's he caught the eye of renowned leader of pop art Andy Warhol.  He was offered a job working for Andy Warhol  at interview magazine.  Where he shot his interpretation of celebrities for over 15 years.  David speaks of using beauty to draw the viewer in, this is evident in his use of beautiful models and colours  which are usually strong vibrant and placed in the image to attract the eye. Title: The rape of Africa 2009 Artist: David LaChapelle  In this image David LaChapelle uses contrast colours  of red, blue and yellows as well as complimentary colours such as orange and blue as well as violet and yellow.  The colours work to create harmony.  This piece uses colour to reinforce the theme of c...

We've been working in manual mode for a week.  I must say i do miss the priority modes because of their automatic functions.  I feel like such a newbie , i'm still finding my feet with all the functions of the camera i'm really glad we have the internet to dive into.  It's been a great tool to use paired with class content.  This way of learning is really beneficial to me.  My two go to sites are Digital Photography school  which have heaps of tips and tutorials from a wide range of photographers and  Eric Kim's Blog  which provide a lot of tips, information and inspiration especially for new photographers.  I stumbled onto Eric Kim when i was doing research on my one of my weekly artists.   With my photos, i've been sticking with the evaluative metering mode.  We have been asked to try out some of the other metering modes.  On the camera i am using - Canon EOS 1100, there are three metering modes, evaluative, partial and cen...

Light - The source of all things right There are several components to consider when using light all of which will influence how photos will come out.  These components are Direct light, Diffused light and Reflected light. Direct light - Causes shadows.  Direct can be natural light ie sunlight or artificial light ie light streaming in from a window.  f/8, 1/100, ISO 100 Here is my subject Miss Dona in direct light.  The light on Dona's face is uneven and only highlights the areas of her face that is in the direction of the light source.  Diffused light – Light can be diffused either by shinning it through an object or by bouncing.  This will take out shadows.   The diffuser is used between the subject and sun allowing enough light to come through for subject to be lit up.  You can diffuse light without a diffuser by shooting on cloudy days, going into shady spots on a sunny day or shooting indoors.  A ...

Colour Understanding how colours work is an art in itself.  We looked at the the colour wheel and how colours fit together.  Using colours to produce photos can be further enhance the mood of a photo. The colour wheel has three primary colours (red, blue and yellow), these colours are mixed to make other colours.  Colours can be split into temperatures. The wheel is divided through the middle from yellow/yellow green to violet/violet red with the warm colours based around the orange and the cool around the blue.   Warm colors — such as red, yellow, and orange; evoke warmth because they remind us of things like the sun or fire. Cool colors — such as blue, green, and purple (violet); evoke a cool feeling because they remind us of things like water or grass.  When warm colours and cool colours are used together they are called contrasting colours. Another way of using colour is by matching colours which sit opposite each other on the colou...